Seventy-Three Percent of Americans Say “YES” to Public Option

Seventy-three percent of those just polled by NBC/WSJ answer in agreement with this statement:

“Is it important to give people a choice of a public option.”

The fact that in the same poll, 48% are “for” a public option and 42% are “against” a public option is a testament to…something. But maybe we won’t go there right now.

Either way, the writing is on the wall: The people want a public option with the health care insurance reform that is about to happen.

They also want the reform to be real, to not be watered down by the insurance companies, and they want it now.

What I’m working on is my list of candidates to force into retirement over the next few years. Olympia Snow has acted abominably. She as wasted our time and energy beyond belief. She has indicated that she has a very, very narrow range of what she will accept and it is clear that she is at odds with not only her own constituents but also the entire nation. According to Chuck Todd (via Facebook, as I write this), Lieberman is going to vote with the GOP to filibuster the bill that is currently moving towards the Senate floor because, again, he has a very, very narrow range of details that he will accept. Senator Max Baucus voted against a bill much like the one we are ending up with shortly because he had a very, very narrow range of acceptable combinations of who would vote for what before he would grow the balls necessary to say, “Yes,” with most of the Democrats instead of, “No,” with all of the Republicans.

These three politicians…Snow, Leiberman, and Baucus…are on my list. I will blog against them; I will raise money for whomever opposes them. They have hijacked our system and now they will have to pay.

I know that my own efforts, by themselves, will be irrelevant. This will be like spitting in the ocean. But here’s the thing: In a year, or three, or five, the fact that these three (and a few others as yet to be sorted out) decided that their own stupid-ass details and attention-getting whinging were more important than health care reform will be forgotten.

Unless a handful of us make sure that does not happen. Fellow bloggers, help me out on this.

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7 Responses to “Seventy-Three Percent of Americans Say “YES” to Public Option”

Seventy-three percent of those just polled by NBC/WSJ answer in agreement with this statement:

“Is it important to give people a choice of a public option.”

The fact that in the same poll, 48% are “for” a public option and 42% are “against” a public option is a testament to…something. But maybe we won’t go there right now.

I imagine that could simply mean that about 25% of the population want people to have the choice for a public option, but won’t make use of it themselves. Or 25% didn’t understand the questions. Or a bit of both.

Don’t ask me, I’m Dutch. We have “socialized medicine” and on the whole we like it (despite the fact that in the Netherlands compulsory health insurance was actually introduced by the Nazis, and we pretty much used their system up until the healthcare reforms of 2006).

Currently my best guess it that you’re still talking about it because most Americans are crazy. Although it’s also possible that it has something to do with people falling for free-market propaganda. Which might be the same thing, really.

A better question to ask voters (not “people”) is, “Will you vote for the opponents of your congressional representatives who block the Public Option?”

We know Greg’s answer. I think that many congresspersons would be fearful if the poll result on this question exceeded 20% Of course, many others would be fearful if the opposite question polled over 20%.

Currently, I think the moderate democrats have the most to fear and will probably block or gut the Public Option and bring Greg’s wrath upon them.

I think that the differences in the poll numbers shows that there are a lot of people that haven’t really made up their minds. So, their support or opposition will depend greatly on how the issue is presented to them. The big media polls don’t seem to go into much detail (at least, only the basic questions are reported on if they do go into detail). I found this poll to be fairly informative.

First, a lot of people don’t understand the bills in Congress very well, given that many think that its provisions would begin soon (within 1 year). Second, support for the public option erodes rapidly if people think that the government plan would have an unfair advantage. On the other hand, those that oppose it change their minds in large numbers if told that the public option would only kick in if not enough people that currently can’t afford insurance are able to with reform that doesn’t include a public option.

So I’ll answer the rhetorical question, “Why are we [still] talking about this?” It is because basic polling doesn’t get into enough detail to show what people really think, nor have enough people made up their minds to have arrived at any kind of solid majority. Another interesting chart (I looked at the ‘chartpack’ from the link I made above.) was that over 50% of people responded that media coverage of the health care debate focused on politics and controversies more than on the actual effects of the proposals. (35% felt coverage was balanced between the two, 8% thought it focused on effects.)